Top seed Maria Sharapova lost 6-2 6-4 to former world number one Justine Henin-Hardenne in the German Open quarter-finals on Friday.
Sharapova made a confident start, breaking Henin-Hardenne's opening service game, but the Belgian broke straight back and won the next six games.
"At crucial points she came up with the good shots," the Russian told reporters.
"She has played a lot of matches on clay and having won two titles must give her a lot of confidence."
The frustrated Wimbledon champion struggled to hold serve in the first game of the second set and after swapping breaks with her opponent allowed Henin-Hardenne to break again.
Sharapova said she always felt there were openings for her to come back into the game but the heavy conditions after rain showers were in the Belgian's favour.
The 18-year-old Russian would have become world number one if she had won the tournament.
"I am not disappointed at all," she said.
"Of course it would have been an amazing honour ... but I am number two in the world, I am 18 and at this point I am pretty satisfied."
Sharapova's performance was patchy as she made 30 unforced errors and hit too many serves and returns wide.
Before the quarter-finals she had dropped only seven games after getting a bye into the second round.
Maria's next tournament will be Rome beginning next week and she will be top seed there and have another shot at getting the #1.
View pictures of todays match
May 6th, 2005
Posted by: Marco
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